I had the pleasure of attending a briefing today on the Supreme Court’s decision on MGM v Grokster. This SC decision is likely to exacerbate the hinderance on technological development that recent lower court cases has had, because the Grokster decision says that software companies are liabel for the use of their product, regardless of intent of design. One of the panelists was Fred von Lohmann, Senior Intellectual Property Attorney, at the the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF is, in my opinion, a fantastic organizaton, that is working to protect the fundamental rights of technological development.
The Supreme Court’s case lies, probably most importantly, on the premise that software developers are liable for the use of their software in violation of copyright laws by third parties using their software, if they could have designed their software to better protect copyright laws. “What?!” you might say…well, that’s exactly how I feel as a technologist. Does this mean that every software developer creating tools in the digital age, needs to create their own Digital Rights Management schemes? That’s ridiculous. There are no standards for DRM currently, and no dicussion of them in the public sphere. Forcing companies to continually consider how their programs can continue to reinforce an antiquated and poorly created copyright system will only hinder technological development and hurt not only consumers, but the entire market in the long run. Isn’t that what America is all about, the greatness of the free-market?
Copyright laws were created to protect the interests of publishers and holders of copyrights, and never in the interest of new development. Recently, new ideas like the GNU GPL (General Public License) have rightfully begun to challenge America’s antiquated copyright system.
I’m sure most of this isn’t going to interest most of you, nor spur you into action, but I think it’s one of the most important issues facing technological development and innovation today. Nonetheless, if you are interested check out the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus’s web page for more information on today’s briefing.
The New York Times has a great article on Democrats and framing. I’m proud to say I’m familiar with at least two individuals mentioned in the article, most of you will know one 
I know it’s a long article, but I definitely think it’s something worth taking a look at.
The wonderful Hirshhorn Gallery of Art, here in Washington, DC, have what sounds to be a fantastic exhibit, titled “Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900.” The New York Times reviewed, and confired Aristotle’s ideal that the senses do indeed have their own domains. Music moves you in ways that visual art could never, and vice versa. Personally, I feel music is far superior, of course!
I’ve expressed my distaste for major record labels before here, and I’m more than happy to do it again, thanks to Tiny Mix Tapes:
INDIEBURN.COM is the latest development in increasing relations between digital distribution sites and independent artists. The site, which launched late last month, offers music downloads in mp3 form by only independent artists and labels and returns 50 percent (!) of the profits to the artist — a figure virtually unheard of among larger labels.
This is fantastic, and illustrates my argument for listening to independent music. It’s not just about the sound of music to me, and alot of other people. While which record label an artist is on is up to them, it’s really unfortunate when artists decide to move to major labels, because they really do give musicians the short end of the proverbial stick.
Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens is one of my favorite artists, and probably one of the best artists around today. NPR recently asked him to write a song about Brinkley, Arkansas in order to understand how Stevens’ style of songwriting works.
Check out the full story here.
“Independent radio producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister were curious about how Stevens writes his songs, which, much like their own work, are filled with stories of places and people. So, they introduced Stevens to the Arkansas town of Brinkley.”
As you can see from previous posts, I’m a big supporter of copyleft like the GNU GPL. Well, the Supreme Court recently ruled that file-sharing companies can be held liable for their software infringing on copyrights if advertise the use of their software as being able to infirnge upon copyright laws. This article represents a pretty great opnion of how antiquated American copyright law is. It’s been built for corporations over the years, and will only continue to hinder technological development in the future.
Whoa! Check this out! You gotta love the Flaming Lips and free and legal downloading. I love this band.
All right, I’m still working on creating a better background, but this will have to suffice. Much thanks to Perun for licensing his WP them under the GNU GPL copyleft licensing structure.
Well, looks like we should get ready for another round of conservative BS about Dems blocking Bush’s judicial nominess, except this time about the most important court. With O’Conner stepping down there is a lenghty list of potential Bush nominees to the high court. While it looks like Luttig is a popular choice among hardline conservatives, his lengthy record on the bench means he’ll probably be an easy target for Dems in the Senate.
With the expected retirement of Justice Rehnquist, it will be interesting to how Dubya handles this one. Guess we’ll just have to stay tuned.
Wow! That was alot of work! Especially when mid-way through all of the color-theme updates, I accidently pasted my style-sheet into the main page, so the main page just became a garble of code. *phew* I’ll be making more changes later, but I think the new color are neat. Let me know if you think anything should change.
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